The King Of The Moon

☽ Kothel ☾ The Gloom (Artem Demura) Velulaei, peace be upon her, Sane again beneath the Moon. Hekel Ylu’umzh - The Three Woes; The Origins of the Drow αչ The Passions of Axios From the Dark they came, Naab Kerel sha a’ska’at, Like the first Eight the same: Hru aezel xyn zaamel: Clay given life, Sorv a’aher tayna, Through passion and strife. Duran myhel zy thul. And from Malin and Larihei Zy naab Malyn zy Laryhey Came Zanunder and Velulaei A’ska’at Zanunder zy Velulaei And as their mother before, Zy hru uhv’sha helun guuzt, They left Malinor Sha a’zank Malynor For they were the Wise, Rentu sha a’yx Maehrel Apathy they despised, Numohuez sha a’adry To idle ‘mongst trees My kuhona lugar amovazh Beneath the Aspects three. Mahg Tekaomelzh hek. These wise few Axzh Maehr dyne Settled Ceru A’ageok Ceru And drank in red mists, Zy a’laruet khroz horuzh, Embracing His gifts. Yekno uhv’Urada laebezh. Their hands became Dark, and later their skin Uhv’sha nakzh a’toomah Ker, zy mabas uhv’sha verb In their home in the deep: Magara’lin Bo uhv’sha nora bo megel, Magaralyn. Behind the Moon lay the Dark Star. The god who hid, for He had been betrayed before. He was Lord of Ambition, Passion and Change. It was only at sea that He could be seen, for the ocean was the domain of his beloved Moon; Her tide, Her embrace. Her tempest, His sanctuary. He offered His secrets to those first elfish sailors, the gifts of the Dark, and with blackened hands their Ambition was realised, their Passions met, and Change they did. The Dark spread from their spells and bathed their forms, painted by the dusk in His image. He was their Night Father - Marn-Keranel - and far from Aegis they became the Drow, or ‘Dark Elves’, though to call them truly ‘Elves’ was a misnomer, for in their Father’s embrace they escaped the apathy of Oaks, and knew not yet the whimsy of the Arcane. They sought above all else knowledge, and its spiritual application. To carve their own destinies beyond Aegis' restraints; a new race, that in Ceru’s caves became ever distant from Malinsfolk and Larihei’s diaspora to follow. In the hollowed heart of the isle that became their capital, Magara’lin, an amethyst geode was presented to Velulaei by the Night Father. A ‘Dark Star’ for her own, The Eye of Velulaei was blessed to share the night sky’s potential with those worthy to wield it. This amulet was passed to her son, Azul, as Crown Prince of Magara’lin. Though this scholastic paradise was not to last. To create a race of his own invoked the other gods’ ire against Marn-Keranel. The Aspects became jealous, for they wished to make druids of all elves. Xan became wroth, for their Passion eclipsed his Order. Tahariae lamented that they were Changed beyond his Purity and above all else Aeriel seethed that their souls were no longer hers, their Ambition earning them rest upon the Dark Star (called Star’gush Stroh by some) in death, rather than her own torturous realm. These Loathsome Six descended on Marn-Kerel, and banished Him to the centre of the world. Without their Father, Velulaei - the leader of the Drow - along with her brother Zanunder, her spouse Uradras and their son Azul began to lose not only their gifts, but their minds. They drank too deep of His red mists, and were sent into a stupor of madness. They became Mory - Deranged - and civil war erupted in Magara’lin as His gifts were twisted and devolved by the aenguls who had betrayed Him. His Ambition became Wrath, His Passion became Terror and His Change became Ruin. Brother turned on brother, and the Drow were for a time condemned. ռψȶ The Lament of the Drow The First Mother wept Aez Helunel a’vallu For her wisdom was lost Rentu uhv’velul mayh a’tom a’tynahn Madness plagued her mind Moryum keenu uhv’velul taeleh The Dark gnawed her heart Kerel a’garn uhv’velul tahel Such was the fate Dunr a’tom amulel Of her brother, Zanunder Aeth uhv’velul urezd, Zanunder Afraid of his kin, safe in the Dark Kyorl aeth uhv’urada szir, ohk bo Kerel War raged above and he hid below Ygne a’kehel su’uz, zy ura yhrl maga Wailing away in the bowels of the world Valunule bo barael akaeleel So Velulaeiya wept like a beast in the night Dunr Velulaeiya a’valun hru aylko bo kerael The Moon kissed her tears Velulaeyael a’baga uhv’velul vallumzh Pale Light gave her peace Xabyth Ythur a’aher velul thet’uzhel kix Her children were healed and their wisdom restored Velul onnyzh a’yx a’ake zy uhv’sha mayh a’akyn The Maehr were renewed, tranquil with the Moon Maehrel a’yx vaex, zimaru lu Velulaeyael Saved by its Light, made whole once more A’hyle me uhv’zeb Ythur, a’aehg vol azt vou All rejoiced in the night, spare Zanunder Ulyth vyn bo kerael, axan Zanunder Grey skinned like the rest, but lost in the deep Durn verbhk hru nahgel, aza a’tynahn bo megeel He felt not the Moon’s kiss; his mind remained stained Ura a’uvad syex uhv’Velulaeyael baga; uhv’urada taeleh atish a’hexe On deeper he went, into Nemiisae’s web Megeyr ura a’ukh, b’al uhv’Nemysae nemy-volry She took his blood for her own and then took his life Vel a’nork uhv’urada enro zy mebe a’nork uhv’urada tayna And a new race was born in that spider’s cave Zy uhno lyhn a’vaen bo ux uhd’nemys magara They were the Deranged, burned by the Light Sha a’yx Moryel, a’ygnere me Ythurel True children of Dark; they knew not the Moon Zkor onnyzh aeth Ker; sha a’yento syex Velulaeyael The Maehr they loathed, taking many as slaves Maehrel sha a’adry, norkule voon ben rothezh Woe to the Mori’quessir, who cannot be saved Ylu’um my Mory’kuessyr, mirz ern syex tom a’hyle The Dark had overwhelmed the first Drow, as they were left directionless in the Night Father’s wake. So it was that Velulaei wept beneath the Moon, the Pale Lady who had once loved their maker. She heard Velulaei’s cries and added Her gifts to His own. For whilst the Moon had loved Her chaotic spouse, Her way was not His. It was her charge to bring the storm, but also the calm. Her domains were Tranquility, Maternity and Grace. With these gifts, the Drow beneath the Velulaei were renewed and became the Maehr - the Wise - that would honour their lost Father and cherish their stoic Mother. Thereafter Uradras was saved, given stoicism and clarity through Velulaei’s newfound teachings, that soon spread across the Maehr upon Ceru’s surface. Tenacious yet tempered, ruthless yet merciful, the Maehr enlightened what drow they could in the reconquest of Magara’lin, though not all could be saved. Zanunder, Velulaei’s brother, had become beset by Terror. He burrowed deeper into the bowels of the world, fleeing his people’s strife alone before he fell into the web he had fled all those years ago. The Aspect Nemiisae bound Zanunder, and took all that he was to hatch a race of her own; for with eight jealous eyes that spider had witnessed the Night Father’s blessings and the first Drow’s rejection of she and her sibling-Aspects. She understood the potential in wroth, though lacked the might to challenge Mother Moon’s new tranquillity. So it was that in the lowest caverns above the Nether and beneath Asulon she enslaved the descendants of the brother-drow; the Mori’quessir, which would haunt the Maehr ever more in the deep. Azul, the son of Velulaei and Uradras, openly rejected the Moon’s gifts. He saw them as weakness and compliance, the same apathy which they had left behind in Aegis amongst Malinsfolk. Unchecked malice guided his Black Hand to subterfuge, and, lacking the necessary grace to guide the Azulites in war, resorted to cowardice. He promised Velulaei an armistice and took a maehr wife for himself, named Keziah. Upon the highest peak in the isles of Axios Velulaei and Azul met alone. They debated the merits of Ambition and Tranquility. Azul forsook the Father as having abandoned them, and he cursed the Mother as a usurper. A union of opposites the Deranged mind could not fathom, and in that moonlit temple he poisoned his own mother; an honourless murder to silence questions he had no answers to, and ideas grander than his own short sight. ɦɛӄ The Dirge of Magara'lin Poison ate at our First Mother’s veins, Azul a’vyh bo uhv’lye uhv’Aezhel Helun enyrzh, Though she wept not for herself, but for the Deranged. Reeky vel a’vallu syex velsha, aza vel Moryel. Azul seethed as Velulaei forgave, Azul a’keyrn ben Velulaeya maluan, Her kinslaying son, and her brother enslaved. Velul szyr-korthule urev, zy velul urezd a’shylrothe And Mother Moon lamented the fate of Her priest Zy Helun-Velulaeya a’keyrn amulet aeth Velul velura Her people fractured, Her beloved a beast. Velul lynn a’ogha, Velul ulmalu o aylyk. The boy’s right had been lost, once meant to rule uhv’Urveoul letta a’tom lanu, azt a’autto vexalt For he lacked the might, that unworthy Azul Rentu ura a’vaeb beelel, ux numlukan Azul Pale Light wept from on high, Xabyth Ythur a’vallu naab kol woad, Bleak tears from the sky Ezekyal vallumzh naab vekylel She smote the heir lost to sin, Vel xoren malvenel lanu my morve, And lost Magara’lin. Zy lanu Magara’lin. Velulaei’s spirit was saved, uhv’Velulaeya osyen a’tom a’hyle, Ne’er to be caged, Xyelor my e’roth, But joined with the lunar whole, Aza vazula lu velel vol, The Mother Moon; The Maehr Soul. Helun-Velulaeyel; Maehrel Osyen. The Moon destroyed Azul for the sin of kinslaying, and took Velulaei’s soul into her once-cold heart. On that fateful day the two became one - the Goddess of the Moon and Tides, Tranquillity, Maternity and Grace, along with the once-daughter of Malin and Mother of the Maehr - to keep vigil forevermore over a people condemned. A dignified gloom, a mourning patron to guide the Maehr back toward stability and civilization in the Night Father’s wake: Helun-Velulaeya, otherwise known as Mother Moon, the Pale Lady, Yyr, Luara or simply Velulaeya. The Eye of Velulaei was lost, to be reclaimed centuries later upon Axios by the regal maehr of the Aegisian diaspora. It took many names and passed through many princely hands, understood by some to be called ‘Luara’s Whispers’. It is said that this artefact is key to reuniting the maehr once more, and ushering in the Night Father’s return. The world weary Maehr sang the dirges of Magara’lin, sailing back in Uradras’ final days to the lands of Aegis from whence they had before come as elves. There, despite Helun-Velulaeya’s efforts, their memories became clouded and warped by the Loathsome Six. The aenguls and spirits attempted to erase the collective, making their songs discordant as the Malinorians deluded the later generations of maehr into ‘dark elvendom’, shackling them in their city upon Aegis. In their travels back from Axios, many maehr came to settle isles in the great seas and cultivate new cultures and faiths, as well as in some cases curating the old truths to become the great clans of the world. This discord was propagated by the Loathsome Six, fearing a reunified maehr may usher in the Marn-Keranel’s return. Though Keziah, Azul’s widow amongst the Aegisians, never forgot. For she and hers - a silent royalty - would keep the Gloom in their hearts for centuries. They carried the Truth beyond the city of Malinsfolk on Aegis, settling the first Free City of Drow that would await the Night Father’s return. Yyrul Koth - Dignified Gloom; The Creeds of the Maehr The antonym of Derangement is Dignity. Though from the Dark we come and the Gloom cannot be forgotten. The six gifts borne of the late Night Father and the Pale Mother define the echoes of Velulaei and Uradras. The masculine vigour to be harnessed and the feminine austerity to be followed. This hexalogue of pursuits makes up the Yyrul Koth; that which makes maehr of mere drow. Xythal - Ambition Like those first sailors to follow the Dark Star across the sea, true maehr are bound by ambition. To learn, to grow, to become stronger and wiser, never to succumb to the apathy which haunts the broader elven races. This is what defines our people. Myhel - Passion As the Night Father before them, true maehr are passionate and expressive. To be expressive is to be free, unshackled by the conventions of other races. To be ashamed of one’s condition is to be as Zanunder. Bask beneath the Moonlight for ye are Maehr. We do not emulate the other races as zkabra. We do not bend to those that would change us. Xebat - Change From Magara’lin to Malinor, Elson Zidar to Ker’nor, the Warhawkes to Rennalia, Vir’aker to Asimu’ulei and Nor’asath, change has always been essential to the survival of the Maehr. To adapt is to survive, to stagnate is to crumble. As under the Night Father and Mother Moon, to turn the great Wheel of history and learn from its wake is to evolve, and be Maehr. Xeemarum - Tranquility Tenacity without temperance and ruthlessness without mercy is the way of the Deranged. Without the Night Father to lead them, the Maehr must embrace the stoicism of Mother Moon. Civility, diplomacy, fraternity and justice shall pave the new road to the Dark Star. Xulyza - Maternity To be scattered is to be extinct. To forsake one’s kin is to be as Azul. True Maehr venerate the great Clans and Houses, the Ancestors before them and the Goddess' maternal wisdom. Obey the Mother, honour the Father and prosper as one. To turn on kin is to be as Azul; do not let the blood of the Maehr run dry nor the tongue of Vel’luah fall silent. Mohyu - Grace Brutality is natural, though barbarity an invention. True maehr are made distinct by their grace; elegance, etiquette, ceremony, music and the arts. To be graceless is to be as the mori’quessir. Remember the ancestors for their triumphs, not their sins, and highlight the unseen beauty of the Gloom. The Moon and the Tides can be bleak and beautiful, the Maehr are both in turn.

"Helun... Yto steta ax nor my laht." A regal drow knelt before the portrait of a bygone Primarch. To paint and delusion he explained: "LYE YX A'KAZAT!"

"Who's gonna tell them?" a young drow winces at the seemingly coincidental name of the establishment, ancestral trauma gnawing at his soul.

Honestly the redline should just be deleted outright. It's already clarified in the feat, where users of that feat should be referring to. Having it duplicated in a magic that the vast majority of devils/ cursed children are unlikely to learn and therefore OOCly read is just courting inconsistencies. To those of you saying this is 'changing the lore to fit their wants', it's quite the opposite. The redline put in the Naztherak MA - - was added in April 2023. The still accepted Devil/ Cursed Child Feat goes in depth about this exact issue, and has its own clarifications - - that this amendment is reiterating. These were accepted in November 2022, not only a full 5 months prior but also in keeping with the four and a half years of established precedent from the original Cursed Children addition back in June 2018, in which timespan multiple cursed child characters obtained deific magics and rulings were given based around the lore logic screenshotted above. This means that, not counting for the inconsistency strangely added to the Naztherak MA (as already stated, the Feat is its own accepted piece and players should be referring to that for its redlines, not a separate magic), Cursed Children have already been able to practice deific magics for just shy of 6 years. This amendment is not adding anything new. Taking that away with a single redline that can be (and seemingly was) easily glossed over in a lore mag is not only horribly disruptive to the roleplay of several people spanning the coarse of years, but also established lore precedent that predates this iteration of the magic.

Somewhere amidst the stars, a doom-scrolling natural philosopher peering through the many windows of the Planar Dictate comes across an arcane advertisement for 'Dragon Fist IPA'. A thin smile spreads across his lips as he puts down a trans dimensional delivery request for a four-pack.

The priestly shadow of a once red devil gawks at the same surnames and begins his hunt. This tapestry of blood, he thinks, reeks of prophecy. Not if I find them first.

Malflame burns anima into malleus, not ectoplasm. The reason most phantoms are harmed by malflame is because their souls are effectively laid bare in an ectoplasmic body (which offers far less protection than flesh). You're conflating ectoplasm with anima. You can find the differences between the two here: Further, this line you mention as an explanation is very clearly targeted toward CAs, as well as magics linked to Aengudaemons that would not abide mysticism (e.g. Paladinism). It explicitly allows everything else. There's plenty of IC as well as NPC/ Worldlore precedent for both present and past mystics that were and are: -Seers whose souls are claimed by the Daemon Vaasek -Wielders of Voidal Magic which marks the soul -Wielders of Voidal Feats which alter the soul (ie Scions) -Devils/ 'Cursed Children' whose souls are marked for taking by the Red Prince (the progenitor of Naztherak and the inferi, importantly) -Necromancers whose souls are Darkened (and are only incompatible in the current iteration due to slot requirements; there are past player as well as current non-player characters capable of doing both for a reason) -Naztherak themselves, past and presently played, both with and without pacts promising their souls to the Pentacle since it was written. Though I agree this specific redline could and should be written more clearly, there isn't really much of a lore argument for being unable to do both. Also given as Unbaed has already pointed out they cannot be cast alongside eachother, as well as the realities that neither offer any combat advantage when not casting to my knowledge, as well as the reality both are already restrained by multiple slot requirements, there's not really a balance argument for it either. A mystic or naztherak filling their other slots with most any other combat magic would be far more potent in conflict than one who'd committed themselves to these two largely ritual and CA-creation centred magics. There's a case for both pertaining to Zar'akal and Wights respectively as being unable to use the other magics in their current forms, certainly, but not the average living person. The Synod perceives naztherak as antithetical to the 'higher calling' of mysticism because it condemns souls in an irreparable way to Moz Strimoza, a condition arguably worse than Ebrietaes, but this is entirely rooted in character culture and morality, not objective 'cans' and 'can'ts'. If someone wants to be giga evil and pervert that dark magic to an even darker, less subjectively immortal cause, then they absolutely should be able to. Will it ultimately impact my roleplay or anyone else's if this gets passed at this moment in time? No, probably not. But taking away the potential for roleplay stories to be told without much justification beyond "it seems weird" isn't a valuable use of lore, in my mind (and yes, I'm sure people will try and find a hypocrisy in me taking this stance).

>I've been dead 5 minutes and the guy who ate my soul is already beelining toward my mori hotwife (I see everything through his eyes and am powerless to intervene)

Ted Bunion spits out a mouthful of grouse upon hearing the new laws, having just poured his life's savings into Balianese goosefeathers which he had intended to resell on the international market. "I'm RUINED!"

Those That Feed In Red. The Imp Parasite. "He was a Jack-in-the-box. Sunset up, sunrise down. And repeat, forever and forever. He was a thing in a box in a cold deep cellar. He was a container for red wines. There was no label on him, but there were little drops of red liquor upon his sleeping lips. He was the contents of a mahogany box, in a cellar of webs and upside-down things hooked to the ceilings. He lived in a land of dripping midnight waters and soft grey web. He was a white hand, a rouged mouth, a glass eye, a set of white teeth and a cold heart. He was a pedestrian who walked the nights. He was a sleeper with original ideas as to hours. He was a leaf, a pelt, a flame, a wing." -D Everett Evans par·a·site /ˈparəˌsīt/ Noun An organism that lives in or on another organism (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the host's expense. Those that dine in red. Leeches. Parasites. Those are only but some of the names these ancient creatures have gone by. Legends, myths, and stories past down from generations have told the tale of these beings, exaggerating them to lengths only man could do. "Officially" regarded as "The Imp Parasite", it is a creature as old as the land itself. Known by this name to to it's parasitical qualities and relative small size. The Imp Parasite acts much like any other parasite, or even leech, seeking out a host at creation. Once found, it will attach itself to this host and feed in intervals between three days to two weeks, depending on the amount fed. Usually it will seek out a spot close to a major artery or vein and send probes directly into the bloodstream, along with several other "roots" into much more sensitive areas. When fully attached it will resemble a tattoo upon your body, having probes in the blood stream, and in several areas of the brain, including the Thalamus Gland.